Mark L. Stout Consulting is an all-purpose transportation consulting firm, specializing in finance, program management, and legislative and DOT policy. Our company has served public agencies and non-profits, big and small, all across the nation. Mark is widely-recognized as an expert whose years of experience can help organizations to break through gridlock and deliver transformative projects and innovative community enhancements.

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Wednesday, January 27, 2016

One more posting from me on TRB – this time some brief notes
on what some leading edge state DOTs are doing to move forward into the 21st
century – advancing performance management, aligning with a broader vision of
transportation, and advancing targeted programs linked to more financial
resources.

(For new readers, TRB is shorthand for the Annual Meeting of
the Transportation Research Board, a transportationpalooza held every January
when 13,000 transportation professionals from academia, government, and the
consulting world congregate in Washington, DC to share the latest research
findings and best practices in the field. There are more than 3,000 sessions
and presentations, and more than 2,750 papers, so any reporting has to be based
on a very limited sample.)

In alphabetical order:

California – Steve
Cliff described Caltrans’ commitment to incorporating sustainability principles
into the organization’s work.They
have adopted a formal sustainability policy, promoting the “3 Ps” of people,
planet, and prosperity and using a Sustainability Maturity model as the
intellectual framework.It isn’t
just a matter of drafting policy papers, however.They are building sustainability principles into their
performance management system (targets, measures, and actions) and into their
project ranking system.

Colorado – Shailen
Bhatt is taking CDOT down an aggressive high-tech path as a way of confronting
the “intractable” problems of growing congestion within severe financial,
environmental, and geographical constraints.They are developing everything from smart guide rail to
smart ramp meters to support for connected vehicles as part of the branded
“RoadX” initiative: “Colorado’s bold commitment to our customers to be a
national leader in using innovative technology to improve our transportation
system.”

Connecticut – Jim
Redeker is leading a comprehensive strategy for upgrading the state’s
transportation system, led by a new plan – “Let’s Go Connecticut” – and fueled
by new revenue.ConnDOT is using
the current tranche of funding to implement a five-year “ramp-up” plan, which
will hopefully be followed by a long-term sustainably funded program at a
significantly higher level.Areas
of focus include rebuilding the transit system and promoting transit-oriented
development.

Massachusetts –
Stephanie Pollack is challenging transportation professionals at MassDOT and
elsewhere to rethink their business, with less focus on mobility and more on
accessibility.Rather than think
of mode share, we should think of market share – a more customer-oriented
approach.An example of using a
market analysis: in one low-income neighborhood taxicabs are a main source of
transportation to supermarkets, while “someone else’s borrowed car” is a
frequently used mode.One of her
rules: never show an image of transportation without people in it!

Pennsylvania – Jim
Ritzman described PennDOT’s commitment to a “decade of investment,” combining a
vigorous modernization effort (“PennDOT 2020”) with new revenues to rebuild the
state’s aging infrastructure.First up: a full-scale attack on the huge backlog of structurally
deficient bridges, where Pennsylvania has the unhappy distinction of leading
the nation.

Virginia – VDOT is
in the final stages of implementing what is probably the most technically
sophisticated project prioritization system that I have seen.According to Robert Cary, the agency is
aiming to create a process that is transparent, repeatable, and data driven, that
will implement the long-range plan while engendering increased confidence from
stakeholders.

Washington – WSDOT
continues to be the gold standard for state DOT performance management and reporting,
with the “Grey Notebook” and spinoff reports now more than a decade old.Daniela Bremmer reported that the
agency continues to pursue improvement, with standards of credibility, candor,
and transparency.In 2015, WSDOT’s
credibility helped secure an 11.9 cent gas tax increase.

Beth Osborne of T4America, which has worked with many state
DOTs, presented some findings and practical suggestions for state DOTs pursuing
change:

·Although Congress anticipated that following
enactment of MAP-21 the states would lead development of performance management
systems, some states have not thought it through at all.

·The public may support transportation but may
not support the transportation agency.

·A successful project prioritization system will
be transparent, consistent, and predictable.

·Be careful with the use of buzzwords and
technical terms.Even “congestion”
means different things to different people.

·No matter how good your project selection
process is, it is seen as a political process until the public understands it.

·Even agencies that do a good job of planning
often do a poor job of oversight and before-and-after reviews.

Monday, January 25, 2016

More from me on TRB, this time on the hot topic of
resilience.(A topic that is even
hotter – not to mention colder – with the Blizzard of 2016.First thoughts here.)

(TRB is shorthand for the Annual Meeting of the
Transportation Research Board, a transportationpalooza held every January when
13,000 transportation professionals from academia, government, and the
consulting world congregate in Washington, DC to share the latest research
findings and best practices in the field. There are more than 3,000 sessions
and presentations, and more than 2,750 papers, so any reporting has to be based
on a very limited sample.)

The best session I attended on the topic was actually a
summary of last September’s TRB conference (my posting here).Six panelists gave very concise “key
findings” and “short-term actions” presentations as rapporteurs on the six big
thematic tracks of the conference.

Hopefully the entire summary will be generally available,
but in the mean time I will give one (hopefully thought-provoking) key finding
and short-term action for each.

The concept of “resilience” is an important topic in
transportation circles these days, and we’ve just had a big-time, real-world
test of how we are doing in that department.Resilience is a broad term for how well you plan, design,
build, and operate your transportation system to withstand the rigors of
climate change and extreme weather events.

At this writing it’s only been about 36 hours since the snow
stopped falling in the Blizzard of 2016 and the recovery has just begun, but it’s
not too early to make a few observations on what seems to have worked well and
what not so well so far.

In general, state and local transportation agencies – and
all their sister agencies – appear to have done a very good job and to have significantly
improved their planning and crisis management skills.It looks to me like all the post-Sandy organizational work
has made a real difference, and the affected cities, states, and independent
agencies seem to be on top of the situation.

Perhaps the most dramatic event of the Blizzard has been the
flooding at the Jersey Shore.Communities which have still not fully recovered from Sandy were once
again subject to flooded streets and homes, despite significant and even vigorous
preparation.This episode
underscores the challenge that sea level rise and periodic flooding poses for
the Eastern Seaboard, especially on the barrier islands.

Transit agencies are still trying to figure out the best way
to respond to events like the Blizzard of 2016.Buses, trollies, and commuter railroads are largely hostage
to the elements and can’t get back in service until the snow is cleared.But what about underground
transit?The Washington Metro
elected to shut down for all of Saturday and Sunday, largely to shelter rolling
stock in the tunnels.On Monday
they are resuming service on underground routes only.In Philadelphia, SEPTA kept service going on the Broad
Street and Market/Frankford lines, which are in tunnel or elevated, throughout
the storm.Which is the better
solution?I’m sure all the
affected agencies had a lively recollection of the events in Boston last
winter, in which the T shuddered to a halt in a bad storm, stranding commuter
rail passengers in the snow.Hopefully we will see some “after action” analysis from the agencies
after they are fully back in business.

Props to Amtrak for keeping the Northeast Corridor running
(although with reduced schedules) throughout the event.

The absolute worst performance of the Blizzard was the
stranding of more than 500 vehicles for more than 24 hours on the Pennsylvania
Turnpike in the western portion of the state.Similar incidents happened on I-77 in West Virginia and I-75
in Kentucky (good summary story here).Folks, this is simply unacceptable.These were major system failures that were nearly
catastrophic.State DOT
commissioners would be well advised to do some serious analysis and planning to
ensure that this never happens (or never happens again in the case of those
three states) on their watch.

Friday, January 22, 2016

Following on my previous posting on electric vehicles at
TRB, I thought it would be worthwhile to talk about hydrogen fuel cell
vehicles, which also attracted a lot of attention.

(TRB is shorthand for the Annual Meeting of the
Transportation Research Board, a transportationpalooza held every January when
13,000 transportation professionals from academia, government, and the
consulting world congregate in Washington, DC to share the latest research
findings and best practices in the field. There are more than 3,000 sessions
and presentations, and more than 2,750 papers, so any reporting has to be based
on a very limited sample.)

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have been called “the other
electric vehicle” and “the vehicle of tomorrow.”But now it appears they may actually start to appear on our
streets and highways.

Some highlights from TRB sessions:

Toyota appears to
be leading the way for vehicle manufacturers.They are transitioning from a development phase to
commercialization.The Toyota
Mirai (list price $57,500) has zero emissions, a 300-mile range, can be
refueled in 3 – 5 minutes, and has a high-torque electric drive.They have infrastructure partnerships
with fueling station providers in California and the Northeast.Toyota has also provided royalty-free
patents to other manufacturers as a way of stimulating the market.

Air Liquide – a major
hydrogen manufacturer – has partnered with Toyota to build 12 stations in the
Northeast US and has many more on the way.They are developing alternative pathways for manufacturing
and distributing hydrogen, both to create an efficient system and to improve
overall life-cycle emissions of greenhouse gases.(How you manufacture and distribute hydrogen matters as much
in calculating GHG emissions as what comes out of the vehicle.)

California
continues to be the leader among states in promoting HFC technology.They are concentrating on building
hydrogen fueling stations and plan to have 50 of them open by the end of
2016.They estimate that about 100
stations throughout the state will be needed for a sustainable system.The hydrogen stations will typically be
built as auxiliary operations at existing gasoline stations.

The US Department of
Energy supports HFC technology as part of its “all of the above” energy
strategy.USDOE’s priority now is
encouraging construction of more fueling stations.There are now about 50 open in the US.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

For those needing decoding, I mean discussions about
Electric Vehicles at the Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, a
transportationpalooza held every January when 13,000 transportation
professionals from academia, government, and the consulting world congregate in
Washington, DC to share the latest research findings and best practices in the
field.(There are more than 3,000
sessions and presentations, and more than 2,750 papers, so any reporting has to
be based on a very limited sample.)

Electric vehicles continue to be a hot topic in the field, I
think in large measure because they are seen as the best chance to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector, which accounts for about 30%
of total emission in the US.

My (selective) highlights:

·Despite the ongoing collapse of oil prices,
cumulative sales and diversification of EV models continues to grow and will be
spurred on by cheaper and more efficient batteries, highlighted by Tesla’s
10-million-square-foot “Gigafactory” for battery production,

·The US Department of Energy continues to promote
the proliferation of EVs through its “EV Everywhere” program, including a
concentration on encouraging workplace charging,

·Although the US has pledged its share in
reducing GHG emissions at the COP-21 conference in Paris, it is unclear what that
commitment will mean for the transport sector in general and for EVs in
particular,

·One specific EV product at COP-21 was the “Paris
Declaration on Electro-Mobility” (available here), in which various public and
private sector groups set a goal of “at least 20 percent of all road transport
vehicles globally to be electrically driven by 2030” and pledged to “advance
our work individually as well as collectively wherever possible to increase
electro-mobility to levels compatible with a less-than 2-degree pathway,”

·A very large study of EV use in Copenhagen
confirmed what most people would expect: most EV trips are short (half of them
less than 5 km) and energy consumption goes up when the weather is very hot or
very cold and when the driver operates the vehicle at very fast or very slow
speeds,

·A smaller scale study of EVs in Stockholm
suggests that EV owners’ perception of lower marginal cost and environmental
friendliness of their vehicles may lead them to drive more – a “rebound” effect
– that could actually increase Vehicle Miles Traveled in some places,

·A policy study of climate change planning in
California, Washington, and Oregon (including EVs as a core measure) concluded
that (1) sustained executive leadership is necessary to turn plans into
actions, (2) finding adequate funding for greenhouse gas reduction programs is
a challenge, and (3) environmental groups have played an important role both in
pushing for legislation and in sustaining emphasis on implementation, and

·To catch a glimpse of the future, think about
“SAEVs” – shared, autonomous, electric vehicles – a combination of technologies
that could lead to robotic, high-tech, super-Ubers called up on your handheld
device!